The Commander's Mate (10 page)

Izzy whooped with glee and jumped in the driver’s seat. In a flash they were speeding down the highway.

“Isabella, you’re driving too fast,” Grayson cautioned, eyeing the speedometer with a frown.

She smirked at him. “I’m barely doing 70, relax. I have everything under control.”

Grayson didn’t say anything else, but Izzy noticed he was white-knuckling the oh-shit handle pretty hard. She decided not to worry about anything but enjoying the drive; it would only take them thirty minutes or so to get to there.

Izzy heard him heave a sigh of relief when she parked under a big oak tree. “Okay, get the basket. We’ll walk the rest of the way from here.”

They had stopped at a dead end on the back country road that edged up to a stand of trees. Grayson grabbed the basket and followed his very excited mate as she navigated through the trees.

In just a few minutes they walked out of the tree line and into a wide open meadow covered in flowers. A large pool of water lay in the center, looking inviting in the evening light.

Izzy walked to the edge of the water and picked up a flat rock; with a laugh she sent it skipping across the still water. “Eight skips, I still got it!”

Turning back to Grayson, she took the basket from him, set it on the ground, and spread the large blanket out. “I used to come here with my family.”

Izzy sat down in the center of the blanket and tugged him down beside her before unpacking their picnic.

“The pond is very pretty,” Grayson said with a gentle smile.

She laughed. “The field and pond are pretty, but that’s not really what I wanted to show you.” Smiling happily, she dished up a plate of potato salad and cold fried chicken, handing his to him before getting her own.

“Why are we here, Isabella?” he asked softly, watching her expressive face.

“The show starts as soon as the sun goes down,” Izzy told him before taking a big bite of chicken. “Eat up. There’s pie for dessert.”

Grayson grunted and ate his food, obviously enjoying the chicken and potato salad. They ate quietly, enjoying the tranquility of the meadow.

As soon as they were done, Izzy packed up their leftovers and dirty plates, set the basket out of the way, then dove at Grayson, knocking him flat on his back in the center of their blanket with a squeal.

Izzy laughed as she looked down at Grayson’s startled face. She leaned down and kissed him deeply before flipping on her back at his side, using his shoulder as a pillow. “That’ll keep. Just watch the sky.”

Shaking his head, Grayson wrapped his arm around her, tucking her close, and watched as the sun slowly sank, leaving a fading pink in its wake that slowly bled into the inky blackness of night. Stars filled the skies, bright and beautiful, threaded through a faint milky ribbon rippling across the night.

Izzy sighed happily. “Aren’t the stars fantastic out here?”

“Yes, little fire, thank you for sharing your special place with me.”

“Just wait,” she whispered softly.

* * *

Grayson was puzzled by his mate’s words; what more could she be sharing with him other than the brightness of the stars in the night sky?

The first flicker of small yellow light was so fast he almost missed it, then before his eyes the air directly above them was filled with thousands of bursts of iridescent yellow light.

“Magical, aren’t they?” Isabella said almost reverently.

“What are they?” he asked, intrigued.

“Lightning bugs. I don’t pretend to know how they work or why they gather here like they do, but it’s something you never forget once you see it. My mom and dad used to bring me here at dusk just so we could watch them under the stars. It was also the only place you could see the Milky Way and all the constellations clearly. It’s one of my favorite places and I wanted you to see it.”

He wasn’t sure what was more magical, the woman at his side or the flashing lights surrounding them, but it was a moment he wouldn’t have missed.

They lay quietly together watching lightning bugs under the night sky, just enjoying the beauty surrounding them.

Isabella sat up next to him after a while and pulled her caftan up and over her head; with a sultry smile she lay down on top of him, kissing him deeply.

Grayson groaned and moved to roll her beneath him on the blanket. Isabella stopped him with a shake of her head. “This time I want to be the one in charge.”

He blinked up at her, surprised but deciding to rein in his dominant nature.

Climbing off of him, she stood next to him and began pulling her hair free from her braids until it hung down her back in a mass of tousled curls. “Strip.”

Grayson smiled and immediately removed his clothing, his breath catching in his throat as she gave him a smile as old as time, then sank to her knees in front of him.

She ran a finger lightly down the length of his erection before leaning forward to press a wet kiss against its tip. His whole body shuddered when she encased the entire head of his shaft in her hot mouth, tonguing the sensitive skin underneath and sucking on it.

Isabella wrapped one hand around the base of his shaft and began to move it up and down as she made a valiant effort to swallow him whole.

His eyes widened when she stroked the tender skin directly behind his balls, then rolled his balls lightly in her hand.

With a loud popping sound, Isabella released his shaft from her mouth and looked up at him with heavy-lidded eyes. The sight of her wild curly hair tumbling around her shoulders and her lips swollen and moist from taking him in her mouth was the most erotic thing he’d ever seen.

Isabella licked her lips. “Lie back down.”

Grayson needed no further urging; once he was on his back, she straddled him and guided his shaft to her wet sheath. He watched as she sank down on him, bracing her hands on his chest as she took him to the hilt.

The feel of her wet heat grasping him tight made him groan. He reached to grab her hips, but she caught his hands and pressed them back down to the blanket.

Grayson gripped the blanket tightly in an effort to stop himself from grabbing her, determined to let her have this.

As he watched her, she began to ride him slowly, keeping eye contact with him as she cupped her breasts and began plucking the nipples with her fingers.

“Ohhh… you feel so good inside me, Grayson,” Isabella told him, rising almost completely off him, then sinking down again hard and fast. The pull of her inner muscles rippling around him was almost irresistible; she needed to hurry or he would finish before she had a chance to come.

This was why Grayson always tried to stay in such rigid control during sex, but somehow handing the reins to Isabella completely stripped him of any control at all, leaving him the staying power of an untried youth.

He was going to have to get a little control back or he would leave his little mate unsatisfied and that was unacceptable.

Grayson wet his thumb thoroughly in his mouth before placing it directly over her clit, then began swatting her bottom in time with her movements. “Faster, ride me faster, Isabella.”

* * *

Izzy moaned as his hand clapped off her bottom again and again, urging her to take him harder and faster while his thumb rode her clit hard.

With a groan she moved her hands from her breasts to brace herself once again on his chest. “No. Keep stroking your breasts, don’t stop until I say you can.”

Izzy wanted to argue that she was in control, but it all felt so good and the command in his tone made her pussy contract, so she went back to pinching and twisting her nipples as she took him even harder and faster.

Grayson’s slaps to her bottom got harder and faster too, and his thumb continued to move relentlessly on her clit until everything inside tightened to an unbearable degree and then she was coming so hard she screamed.

He sat up, wrapping her close and driving his hips up into her hard and fast before he too was groaning his release into her neck.

They collapsed back onto the blanket in a tangle of arms and legs, neither willing to let the other go. Izzy pressed kisses all across Grayson’s chest from her position sprawled on top of him.

“I never thought I would feel this way,” she whispered softly.

Grayson chuckled and rolled her beneath him, keeping their bodies joined. Izzy gasped when she realized he was hard again already.

“Little fire, you were made to feel this way. This time I’m in charge,” he told her with a wicked grin as he began to move once more.

He grabbed her ankles and spread her wide, holding them almost up by shoulders and he pounded into her hard and fast. He seemed to be sinking in deeper than ever before, the head of his shaft slamming into her cervix every time he thrust home.

Izzy was coming by the third thrust, but still he keep up the hard rhythm, throwing her from one peak to the next, higher and higher until she felt like she was flying through the stars above their heads. Then, with a shout of completion, he ground against her one final time as he filled her with his hot essence.

There under the sparkling stars and the winking lights of the lightning bugs, she held tight to her mate as they floated back to earth together.

Chapter Seven

Izzy smiled as she sang to herself and danced around the entry hall after seeing Grayson off at the door. She couldn’t believe how complete she felt.

She loved and was loved in return. It was the single most beautiful thing she’d ever been a part of.

Izzy glanced up at the chandelier with a frown. Grayson had told her she wasn’t allowed to use the ladder, but he should be gone for several hours.

She should be able to get the ladder and get the chandelier clean before he got home. It would be taken care of and he would never know.

She chewed her lip thoughtfully as she contemplated the dirty chandelier. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him or her, right?

Unfortunately she was proven wrong a few minutes later when her irate mate came back through the front door to find Izzy precariously perched at the top of the ladder.

“You will come down this instant, Isabella!” The command nearly made her lose her balance. Grayson steadied the ladder while she climbed down far enough for him to grab her and lift her the rest of the way down.

“Hi, honey,” she said in a small voice, beginning to realize from the look in his eyes that she might have bitten off more than she could chew.

“Did I not tell you that under no circumstances were you to climb that ladder?” her furious mate asked.

“Ummm, yes, but I thought…” she stammered.

“You thought my instructions could be disregarded?”

“Not exactly, but I thought maybe I could finish before you got home and…” Izzy said lamely.

“And I would never know? You deliberately defied me, Isabella. Young lady, you will go upstairs, strip, and put your nose in the first corner you come to. I will be up to deal with your outright disobedience once I’ve calmed down,” Grayson said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Izzy scurried up the stairs in a hurry to obey.

* * *

“Come here, Isabella.” Izzy turned at the command to see Grayson sitting in a straight-backed chair in the center of the room. The small wooden paddle in his hand made her steps falter and the long thick butt plug resting on a towel on the floor made her bottom clench.

“Grayson, please… I’m sorry,” she began.

“The time has come for you to fully understand what will happen if you disobey me again. You have a double punishment coming. Not only did you disobey me, but you put yourself in harm’s way. By the time we are finished here today, you will never behave so foolishly again.”

Her mouth went dry.

“Come here now. You do not want me to be forced to come get you, you are already in far more trouble than you can comprehend.” Holding his hand out to her, Grayson beckoned her with the crook of a finger.

Tears were already forming when Izzy took his hand and allowed herself to be guided across his lap. He tilted her farther over than ever before and roughly pulled her thighs apart.

“Noooo!” she cried almost in a panic when she felt one of his hands force her bottom cheeks open.

“This is what happens to naughty mates who ignore instructions, Isabella,” he told her sternly as one broad finger thrust inside her poor bottom without preamble. It wasn’t as painful as it was uncomfortable and humiliating, to have her bottom taken this way in punishment.

He began to thrust his finger in and out of her in a hard punishing rhythm, scolding her the entire time. She cried out when a second finger joined the first.

“Are you going to obey me from now on, Isabella?”

“Yes! Yes! Grayson, please!” she cried out.

When he finally removed his fingers from her tender hole, her relief was short-lived because before she could even sigh, the little paddle clapped off her vulnerable bottom.

“Oww!” Izzy kicked frantically. The sting from the paddle was tremendous.

Grayson ignored her pleas and methodically paddled her, covering every inch of her of her bottom at least ten times before concentrating his efforts on her sit spots.

When the paddle began to hit the same spot on the tender crease of her left bottom cheek again and again, Izzy’s desperation grew to new levels. She couldn’t believe how badly her bottom hurt.

She was also horrified to have upset Grayson so much. The disappointment and disapproval in his gaze hurt almost as much as the spanking.

* * *

Grayson allowed fifteen measured strokes to fall on that spot before he moved to the other side to give it the same treatment.

By the time she was paddled to his satisfaction, there was not an inch of unscorched skin on her bottom or thighs. The skin was swollen and the brightest crimson he’d ever seen. The tender under curve of her backside was splotched purple on each side, ensuring the lesson would be remembered every time she sat for several days to come.